APRoger Federer: Still the best.Roger Federer’s consecutive Grand Slam semifinal streak -- now at 23 and counting -- is the greatest record in sports. Greater than DiMaggio’s 56 games. Greater than Wilt’s 100 points. Federer’s career major record (15 and counting) surely will fall on some distant day, but the semifinal streak -- even if it ends this year -- will last forever, with no one else even close. It will be a bulwark against all future greatest-of-all-time contenders.

For that matter, so will yesterday’s quarterfinal win over Nikolay Davydenko that kept the streak alive. After 10 games, the Russian appeared to be on his way to the Final Four and, at last, his first major title. Skittering across the baseline like a tightrope walker, he pressured Federer with every thumping shot. For point after point, Federer sprinted from side to side until, inevitably, he would frame a backhand or crush the ball into the net. Davydenko broke the 28-year-old Swiss twice to take the first set 6-2 and then broke again to open the second. Frustrated, out of sorts, Federer sat down during the changeover with that far-away, get-me-out-of-here look that you usually see on his opponents’ faces.

Or so it seemed. Turns out, that was the look of a man figuring out how to adjust to a confident, in-form player, how to turn Davydenko’s strengths into weaknesses. Soon enough, the career Grand Slam champion came roaring to life, got the break back and then blasted off into the stratosphere. He won 13 consecutive games from 1-3 in the second and zoomed to a four-set win, 2-6, 6-3, 6-0, 7-5.

"That's the beauty of best-of-five sets," Federer said after the match, referring to when he went down a break in the second set. "I wasn't panicking. ... I just relaxed and thought, you know, maybe if the
sun goes and his level drops just a little bit, the whole thing might,
you know, change for the better."

The piercing sun did indeed drop away from the court in the second set, and Davydenko's level dropped, too. Of course, the Russian's falloff had a lot to do with Federer, who finally found his own serve and a much-needed backhand rhythm. The sixth-seeded Davydenko, who's been unbeatable the past three months, realized with stomach-throbbing finality that even his best isn't good enough against a determined Federer at a Grand Slam event.

Someday, surely, we’ll be right when we start to write Roger Federer’s career obituary in our heads. Some observers thought it was all over when Novak Djokovic beat him in the 2008 Australian Open semifinals, with Djokovic's parents chanting “the king is dead” in the players’ box as the bare-chested Serbian thumped his chest on court. (Watch highlights of that match below.) Others, heads shaking sadly, lamented Federer’s passing when Rafael Nadal destroyed him in the French final a few months later, 6-1, 6-3, 6-0. Still another turning point, it seemed, came last fall when Juan Martin del Potro fought back from a 2-sets-to-1 deficit to beat Federer and win the U.S. Open.

Yet here Roger Federer still is, beating the best at their best, down-shifting toward another major championship. The streak goes on. The king has some life left in him yet.